Of course, many are talking about the much-bruited ROCOR-OCA lovefest being touted on the official websites of both bodies. Of course, one sees a great deal of thunder rumbling, lightning flashes, and showy spectacles. In short, it’s “Much Ado Signifying Nothing”. This didn’t come from an organic and natural growth… it came from the clerical bureaucracies of both groups… they’re scared shitless of the Storheim affair and how it will influence the OCA.
Here’s what I wrote to a priest friend:
Let’s keep it simple… Lebedeff is scared that victims of ROCOR paedophiles will come out. If you lie about your past… this is what happens. As I wrote yesterday, this is NO surprise. It’s been coming for some time. All this will do is roil the pot… which may well be necessary. Don’t say anything openly… Lebedeff’s a nasty sort. DO speak up in private… but do protect yourself. I can be a Mme Plas… it would be disastrous for you. The apparatchiki are scared shitless by the Storheim case… they’re afraid of a revolt by the unwashed, and, let me tell you, the ROCOR ethnic faithful and the OCA ethnic faithful are still tight… as they well should be.
Both the OCA and ROCOR apparats are hiding a great deal of nastiness. It’s not only the Terrible Trio of Podmoshensky, Greene, and Metropoulos… there was a hushed-up scandal at Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville in the 80s… the cleric involved was sent off to the Mountain, I believe. In the OCA, it wasn’t merely the Three Gay Blades… Lazor, l’Huillier, and Soraich… what about Peterson and Paffhausen celebrating liturgy alongside Isidore Brittain, who was supposedly suspended for naughty doings? That is, there’s a great deal of stuff that both sides are attempting to stuff down the memory hole.
A third party told me that Paffhausen attempted to gag Kristi Kumentakos with a directive to “forgive and forget”… that is, “pay, pray, and obey”, and he had the consummate gall to try to order her to keep it secret. This jackass is forever braying about “transparency” and “openness”… and he secretly threatens people. Don’t you dare send your goons after Kristi, Fathausen… she didn’t breathe a word to me… and don’t you dare go after her father, you posturing POS, he didn’t say a thing either. Your actions are rather notorious now, and all sorts of people are watching you. C’mon, you were asked to investigate Seraphim Storheim a year ago, and you refused.
This should teach all of you out there a lesson. For the time being… don’t trust either OCA or ROCOR priests, and don’t tell ‘em anything that you wouldn’t want publicised. Fathausen has refused to punish Velencia for his spilling of the beans from counselling, and that’s the same as blabbing confessional secrets (the law thinks so). I don’t like saying this, but sad experience has taught me that most priests are weak men. They AREN’T evil or bad… they’re only weak reeds. However, most of the wickedness done in this fallen world is the result of weakness in the face of power, not deliberate evil or conscious nastiness. There are bad bishops such as Paffhausen and Peterson out there (they did openly concelebrate with the suspended clergyman Isidore Brittain, after all). These men stop at nothing… they have no scruples… they threaten people in secret (as do some archpriests and hieromonks as well).
This rot is pervasive in both the ROCOR and OCA upper reaches… be careful what you say to a priest. A given priest may wish to keep a confidence, but crook bishops and archpriests have ways of getting weak priests to spill the goodies. Never underestimate the power of “the good of the Church”. If the average priest were given the choice, he’d spill what you told him in preference to losing his situation or rank. I’m not telling you to hate priests; I’m not telling you that they’re rotters… I’m telling you to be circumspect until this mess finds a resolution.
That’s how low we’ve fallen. That’s what makes the current dance of the spinmeisters on the official websites so macabre and twisted. Well, we know something now… they’re all the same under the skin, and they all wish to hold on to power at all costs.
Take heart, it won’t last forever… it’ll just feel that way. I remember what a local in Richfield Springs NY told me about the Jordanville monastery. “They lost their reason for being in ’91 when the commies fell, and they haven’t found anything yet to replace it”. SVS/Syosset has been headless since the death of ADS. Today, these two apparats are just self-perpetuating cabals… it’s sad, isn’t it? I remember the 80s and 90s… none of us thought that it would end like this… in mutual moral bankruptcy and mutual defence of moral turpitude that would make a hardened Odessa thief hurl in disgust.
It’s never boring in Orthodoxy in America… do pass me the jug. Remember… don’t tell a priest anything that you don’t want the whole world to know. That’s how bad it’s gotten… remember, Raymond Velencia still remains unpunished and he remains a priest (defended by JP and Lebedeff, dontcha know).
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Wednesday 15 December 2010
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
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